There were lively exchanges between the North's Minister of Agriculture, Ms Brid Rodgers, and the Rev Ian Paisley during the first appearance of a Stormont minister at a public Assembly committee hearing yesterday.
The DUP leader, who chairs the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, clashed with the SDLP Minister over looking for EU assistance for Northern farmers who are in debt. He accused her of "giving up the fight" before she had even begun.
Ms Rodgers denied her department lacked commitment to the farmers. Dr Paisley rebuked her for telling the committee the North's pig industry was unlikely to get aid from Brussels.
Ms Rodgers said pig farmers had already received direct aid from Brussels owing to exceptional circumstances.
Referring to a Dublin Government application for EU approval for aid for its pig industry, she said:
"The scheme in the South will cost up to £1 million. We are financially fully committed, thanks to animal health compensation costs. We simply do not have the money to run such a scheme here.
"However, if we had the money, there would be other difficulties such as the need to convince the other UK agriculture ministers and the EU Commission of the merits of such a proposed scheme.
"I have undertaken to see what I can do, but I have to say I am not optimistic I can deliver a scheme like the one in the Republic, or at all."
Dr Paisley said pig farmers would "learn with great sorrow" that the North was not entitled to the same funding as the Republic.
"If an attempt is not made to sell this to the ministers of the other parts of the UK, or if no attempt is made through the good offices of Mr Fischler (the EU Farm Commissioner), that will be highly resented by the pig farming community."
Ms Rodgers's department was also criticised by Sinn Fein for allocating £400,000 this week for marketing pigmeat.
Mr Gerry McHugh MLA said it was wrong to reward a section of the industry which had been "profiteering and doing exceptionally well at the expense of the primary producer all along".
Ms Rodgers acknowledged the internal tensions in the pig industry and expressed some sympathy with farmers. An Ulster Unionist MLA, Mr Billy Armstrong, said he was disappointed no financial aid was granted to pig producers in the budgetary underspend allocation by the Executive this week.
Earlier it was disclosed that neither the Minister nor the agriculture committee had been made aware of a proposal by the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, for a £100 million government loan to help the North's farmers reduce their bank debts. Almost £500 million is owed.
Mr Trimble and the UUP vice-chairman of the agriculture committee, Mr George Savage, put the proposal to Mr Blair in London on Thursday.
Ms Rodgers admitted she had not been informed, and the DUP's Mr Ian Paisley jnr criticised the First Minister for not informing her or the committee.
Mr Savage, who drew up the plan following consultations with the North's farming unions, said the loan scheme would give farmers breathing space.
He also claimed it could avoid European Commission opposition, because a loan which would be repaid by farmers could not be classified as state aid. Ms Rodgers said she was awaiting the response of the British government and financial institutions to the UUP's suggestion.
But she added: "Without knowing the details and what is behind this, it does appear to me not to be viable because I know that the French did try some years ago to introduce low-interest loans, and this was disallowed by the European Union because it was considered state aid."